We had a request for this teaching so today, we want to discuss how to purify our negative Karma. Now, when we talk about past negative Karma, we are not only talking about this lifetime but all previous lives. By that standard, we have created enormous negative Karma. It is impossible to remove the fact that a negative action has been created. However, we can do something to prevent our negative actions to produce suffering. Every negative action can ripen in one of four possible ways: 1) the ripened effect; 2) the environmental effect; 3) the effect that is experience similar to the cause; and 4) the effect that is tendency similar to cause
What does that mean? Well, the ripened effect is when we end up as an animal. The environmental effect is we are born in a war zone. The effect that is experience similar to the cause is when we experience in our life similar pain. And effect that is a tendency similar to cause puts us in situations where we tend to create similar negative actions over and over again.
The first step in the preparation of purification is that when we are experiencing consequences of our negative Karma, in whatever form that may be in, we should realize that these consequences are due to our past negative Karma and we need to do whatever it takes to purify past negative Karma so we do not end up in this situations again and again.
Here is from the book Universal Compassion by Geshe Kelsang: Strong purification made every day over a long period of time will completely purify even the heaviest negative Karma; less powerful purification will slightly reduce our negativities, and a small amount of purification will prevent the power of the negative Karma from increasing. So any amount of effort we make is helpful.
There are four so-called opponent powers that help us purify negative Karma. They are 1) the power of regret; 2) the power of reliance; 3) the power of the opponent force, and 4) the power of promise.
Let’s look at each one. First is the power of reliance. The power of reliance purifies the environmental effect of negative action. It also subdues our negative karma in general. Most of the objects of our negative actions are other living beings. But at the same time, we have created negative actions against objects of refuge. The objects of our refuge whatever higher authority that we may believe in. Sometimes, we talk down the object of refuge or ridicule these objects. To remove these negative actions or purify these previous negative Karma, we need to develop a reliance on objects of refuge—whatever that may mean to us. This will allow us to generate compassion toward all living beings and that in turn will purify our negative Karma.
The next is the power of the opponent force. The power of the opponent force purifies the ripened effect of the negative karma. It is the direct opponent of negative karma. When we have remorse for a specific negative Karma, and if we apply the opponent to that negative action (antidote of sorts); it helps us purify our negative Karma. What is the opponent force you may ask? It is actually any virtuous action performed to purify a specific negative Karma. Similar to paying a fine for a traffic violation if you will!
The next is the power of regret. It purifies the effect that is experience similar to the cause. It also prevents the effects of negative karma from increasing. If we understand the dangers of suffering created by negative actions, we will develop sincere regret for having committed these actions. If we contemplate that we have created enormous amounts of negative Karma over our lifetimes and we will eventually have to suffer the consequences of that. By contemplating this way, we will develop remorse for our past negative Karma. If our remorse is sincere, we will be determined to prevent future negative Karma. This remorse is what is known as the power of regret. The more regret we generate, the more powerful our purification will be.
The next and final power is the power of promise. It purifies the effect that is a tendency similar to the cause. It also prevents us from repeating the negative karma. This is very important. In this phase, we are promising not to repeat past negative Karma. Without this promise, none of the other powers really work as well. This one power if applied effectively and regularly helps purify our negative Karma. There are types of negative Karma we can give up and promise never to commit again. There may be some negative Karma that we are not ready to give up and we can promise not to commit for a short period of time say a week or a month. We have talked about this before. If you are a fisherman, it is understandable not to promise to kill all living beings. But you can start with every living being except fish. Then later expand to no-killing fish for one day a week and so forth.
After learning all the consequences of our negative Karma, I think it is only appropriate for us to begin to apply these opponent powers to begin purifying our negative Karma. Hope this helps and that you can begin your purification practice in some small way.